YORK soprano Rebecca Newman set herself the target of raising £5,000 for Childline when she launched her CD Cantare in October 2008.

Come Sunday’s 7pm concert at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, she will announce she has reached her goal for a charity that is now part of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.

“I’ve been donating 50p per copy sold of Cantare and my follow-up album, Memory, to the Childline charity ever since 2008, as well as organising fundraising events and charity street performances,” says Rebecca, who will present the £5,000 cheque to Liz Barran, corporate manager for the northern area of Childline/NSPCC, at the end of this weekend’s concert.

Rebecca is passionate about the work of Childline. “On average, it costs £4 per basic call and £25 for a more in-depth call to a counsellor, so £5,000 will allow for an extra 1,250 phone calls to be taken, which could even be life-saving calls where a child has rung up in distress,” she says.

“One such caller was a 12-year-old girl on a motorway bridge who was being bullied. Without Childline, and the trained call handler she spoke to, it could have been a very different story and not have ended happily.”

Rebecca chose Childline because she appreciates the need for children to have an adult listening ear. “I was lucky as I had some great people – teachers and friends – around me while growing up when I was going through my own troubles, but not all children are that lucky,” she says.

“When I busked outside the Minster or Bettys Tea Rooms while at university, I came across people from very different backgrounds and saw how they could be affected by problems during their childhood that they carry with them into their future lives.

“I also knew Childline was having a funding crisis a few years ago and thought it would be a disaster if it had to be shut down, so I decided to raise funds for it.”

Rebecca can’t wait for Sunday’s event. “It’s about time I had a public concert in York, as apart from a small Christmas concert in December 2009, with a limited capacity at the Bar Convent, I haven’t done one,” says Rebecca.

“I’ve performed in fantastic shows across the country, including taking the leading-lady role in Carousel in Harrogate in May 2009 and performing with a 22-piece orchestra in front of a full house at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall in October that year.

“But I never forget how much warmth and support has been shown to me by people in York, my adopted home city.”

This explains her desire to organise a concert “here at home”. “It’s a bit of a home-coming for me, because this is where it all started as a busker during my university days, when I studied philosophy, politics and economics, before I settled here,” says Rebecca. “Now, two and a half years on, I’m almost at my fundraising target, have sold almost 7,000 CDs, have been on countless radio shows and ITV twice and have developed and grown so much as a performer.”

She will be joined at Sunday’s concert by G4 tenor Ben Thapa, plus singer and pianist Rebecca Gardner, harpist and singer Ruby Paul and dancer Gina Hobon, who are all from York. The night’s band of York and Leeds musicians will play piano, violin, cello, flute and clarinet.

“I’m putting together a fantastic programme of operatic arias and classical music show tunes, with special guest acts, to really make it a wonderful evening for everyone,” says Rebecca.

“As well as performing Fields Of Gold with Ruby, I’ll be singing some of the operatic classics, such as Puccini’s O Mio Babbino Caro (Oh My Beloved Father), and taking on some new crossover songs that I intend to put on my next album, like Parla Piu Piano, a classical-crossover version of Speak Softly Love, the theme from The Godfather.

“Aside from my usual numbers from musicals that people know and love, from I Dreamed A Dream to You’ll Never Walk Alone, I’ll also be introducing some new songs, including the fantastic Love Never Dies, the title song from the new Andrew Lloyd-Webber musical.”

Rebecca stresses Sunday “will not be a stuffy concert where you sit and listen to song after song”. “It’ll be a show to excite the senses with beautiful costumes, wonderful dancers and songs sung filled with the drama and emotion you would expect at the peak of the industry,” she says.

“The concert is very important for helping me to raise the funds for my next album, which I aim to start recording soon and want to release in Spring 2012 – it would have been this year but I’m getting married in December and can’t afford both.”

As with Cantare, it will be classical-crossover album, this time combining timeless pieces such as World In Union with songs newly written by Rebecca. “It will be recorded with top music-industry professionals to help take my music career to the next level,” she says.

Looking ahead, she has been invited to sing with a 50-piece orchestra in an open-air Proms-style concert in Hull later this summer, although this is still awaiting confirmation. However, she definitely will be the guest artist at the annual Festive Spectacular concert at the Scarborough Spa Grand Hall, hosted by Look North anchorman Harry Gration on December 3.

Tickets for Sunday are on sale on 01904 623568 and online at rebeccanewman.net. “You can find out more on my website, where you can contact me to be added to my newsletter,” says Rebecca.